WOW to introduce PVP levelling?

In a World of Warcraft player-versus-player panel at last weekend's BlizzCon, it was revealed that Blizzard is considering making it possible for players to level up by playing PVP battlegrounds.

Buried deep in WOW Insider's transcript, you'll find this quote: "We also want players to be able to level up in the battlegrounds, kind of mix up levelling PVE and PVP."

The article suggests that playing battlegrounds will reward players with experience as well as the honor points currently dished out, and that this will be boosted with daily quests right the way through from level 10, when battlegrounds begin, to level 80.

It's a departure for WOW, which has traditionally allowed players to play battlegrounds endlessly while keeping a static character level. This has led to widespread "twinking" - the practice of keeping a PVP character at the top of one of the lower level bands (at level 19 or 29, usually), and using a max-level character's money to kit them out with the best gear.

One of recently-released rival Warhammer Online's most well-received features is the ability to level characters entirely in PVP. This latest move is a sign that, in PVP, Mythic's game has Blizzard on the back foot.

The panel also discussed the possibility of a more competitive, guild-based system for battlegrounds, with ranking similar to that for Arena teams: "mixing it up with other guilds to show who's the top dog".

You'll find plenty on more forthcoming changes to WOW PVP - including details of new Arenas in Orgrimmar and Dalaran, and Wrath of the Lich King's new battleground and open-world PVP areas - in the WOW Insider piece.